Jan Hackaert (Amsterdam 1628 - after 1685 Amsterdam)

He was baptized on 1 February 1628 in the Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam as Joannes, son of Jan Hackaert (died 1652), a Calvinist merchant, originally from Antwerp, who settled in Amsterdam c. 1625. His mother was Catrina Antones [Antheunis].²²Life dates unknown. Amsterdam, Stadsarchief, DTB 40, p. 435. There is no information as to his training as an artist. Maybe he was a dilettante. Since his works show the influence of Jan Both (1615-1652),³³For instance, a drawing in the Print Room at Windsor Castle, inv. no. 6302; cf. C. White and C. Crawley, The Dutch and Flemish Drawings of the Fifteenth to the Early Nineteenth Centuries in the Collection of her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, coll. cat. Cambridge 1994, no. 371, repeats motifs from paintings and etchings by Jan Both. it sometimes was assumed that he was Hackaert’s teacher, but there is no documentary proof for that.

In 1652, Hackaert’s father died. The following year, 25-year-old Hackaert travelled for the first time to Switzerland. His liber amicorum,⁴⁴Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Koninklijk Oudheidkundig Genootschap, inv. no. KOG Hs 79. documents a visit to Basel in July 1653 and Schaffhausen at the end of August of that year. A drawing of the Rhine Falls at Schaffhausen probably dates from that first trip.⁵⁵Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Atlas van der Hem, vol. 46, illustrated in G. Solar, Jan Hackaert: Die Schweizer Ansichten 1653-1656: Zeichnungen eines niederländischen Malers als frühe Bilddokumente der Alpenlandschaft, Zurich 1981, p. **, fig. 1. As there is an eleven-month-gap in the liber amicorum between 24 August 1653 (Schaffhausen) and 26 July 1654 (Zurich), it may be surmised that Hackaert returned to Amsterdam. Alternatively, a potential visit to Italy has been associated with this period. However, because such a sojourn cannot be documented by in situ sketches of Italian sites, it is instead likely that Hackaert developed his Italianate manner through second-hand sources of inspiration.

In May 1655, Hackaert was back in Zurich, travelling via Frauenfeld and probably via Konstanz in southern Germany. Two drawings of the bridge over the Neckar in Esslingen, south Germany, preserved in the Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen (inv. nos. KKSgb15887 and KKSgb15888),⁶⁶G. Solar, Jan Hackaert: Die Schweizer Ansichten 1653-1656: Zeichnungen eines niederländischen Malers als frühe Bilddokumente der Alpenlandschaft, Zurich 1981, p. **, fig. 12. may have been done during this trip. Probably on 31 May 1665, Hackaert set out for a four-month-trip into the Alps, initially accompanied by the Zurich painter Conrad Meyer (1618-1689). He also travelled along the Rhine. Sketches from that journey are now in the Kunsthaus, Zurich (inv. no. O 13), and the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg (inv. nos. 1915-537 to 1915-560 and 1915-571).⁷⁷A. Stefes, Niederländische Zeichnungen, 1450-1800, 3 vols., coll. cat. Hamburg 2011 (Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle, Kupferstichkabinett, vol. 2), nos. 405.1-25. Large topographical drawings by him, including some of the earliest examples of pure alpine landscape, are now in the Atlas Van der Hem in the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna, assembled by Laurens van der Hem (1621-1678). The drawings may have been commissioned by Van der Hem or a member of his family or purchased directly from the artist between 1657 and 1661. Of these views, thirty-eight are known today, but the holdings originally must have been even larger, as they are numbered, up to sixty-two.

After visiting the Alps, Hackaert stayed eight months with the Zurich general and architect Johann Georg Werdmüller (1614-1677), for whom he drew a set of imaginary landscapes that are now in Zurich.⁸⁸Zurich, Kunsthaus, inv. no. O 13. He also taught Werdmüller’s son Hans Rudolf Werdmüller (1639-1668) to draw. Other artists he influenced were the sons of Conrad Meyer, Felix Meyer (1653-1713) and Johannes Meyer (1655-1712), as well as the Swiss landscape painter and engraver Johann Balthasar Bullinger (1713-1793). Thus, after first having drawn inspiration from his travel-companion Conrad Meyer, he later inspired Swiss painting far into the eighteenth century.

On 25 August 1657, Hackaert is last documented in Zurich. From there, he might have taken the opportunity to travel to the Tyrol, since the Atlas van der Hem in Vienna includes three Tyrolean views by the artist (inv. nos. 13:68, 13:73 and 13:75).⁹⁹E. de Groot et al. (eds.), The Atlas Blaeu-Van der Hem of the Austrian National Library, 7 vols., ’t Goy-Houten 1996-2008, II (1999), pp. 313, 319, 321. In 1658, he was back in Amsterdam, living on the Keizersgracht.

Hackaert’s oeuvre consists of a large corpus of drawings, including Italianate scenes in the succession of Jan Both and impressive Alpine views. His earliest dated drawing, now in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1836,0811.311), is from 1653. As a painter, he mainly produced Italianate landscapes. Hofstede de Groot knew four dated paintings (1657, 1665, 1668 and 1674); Wijnman and Solar also mention a painting of 1685. Curiously, Hackaert’s painted oeuvre of circa 200 works is for the most part not linked with his topographical drawings. For figural staffage, Hackaert collaborated with the painters Adriaen van de Velde (16136-1672), Nicolaes Berchem (1621/22-1683) and Johannes Lingelbach (1622-1674).

There are seven known etchings by Hackaert, six of them belonging to a series that was published in Amsterdam with Clement de Jonghe (1624/25-1677). His last documentary mention is in 1667. As his name does not turn up in wedding registers, one may assume that he remained unmarried.

Annemarie Stefes, 2019

References
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